15-day time granted by IHC to federation for appointing ECP members

On Tuesday, Islamabad High Court (IHC) granted 15 more days to the federal government for appointing members of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

The court was told during the hearing that many members of parliamentary committee were unable to attend the meeting on Monday due to thick fog. The rules formed by the former committee are not suitable in present scenario, legal adviser said.

IHC’s Chief Justice said the court can only expect that the opposition leaders and Prime Minister Imran Khan select names for the posts jointly. The Chief Justice asserted that only parliamentary committee can change the rules.

The legal adviser said that parliament has the ability to handle the situation only if it commits any mistake over which, the CJ replied that National Assembly should not do any mistake as it is a representative of 22 crore people.

Subsequently, the hearing has been adjourned till 15th January.

It is pertinent to mention here that the government and the opposition forwarded their nominations for the appointment of ECP members to Senate Asad Qaiser, Speaker National Assembly and senate’s chairman Sadiq Sanjarani, who later forwarded it to the parliamentary committee for consideration.

Earlier, PM office had raised objections on the name recommended by opposition leader Shahbaz Sharif for the appointment of Chief Election Commissioner. Nasir Mehmood Khosa, Jalil Abbas Jilani and Akhlaq Ahmed Tarar were the suggested names.

Jaleel Abbas Jilani remained former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s chief secretary and worked as chief secretary Punjab under CM Shahbaz Sharif. Nasir Mehmood Khosa is known to be close to the Sharif family and Akhlaq Tarar has also served as federal secretary.

Shehbaz Sharif maintained that PM Imran should have initiated this process of consultation a long time ago.

“I am starting this procedure to prevent the ECP from getting non-functional,” the PML-N leader added.

The letter by PML-N president also comprised three names each from Sindh and Balochistan for their nominations as the ECP members. From Sindh, the opposition leader had recommended Nisar Durrani, Justice (retd) Abdul Rasul Memon and Aurangzeb Haq.

From Balochistan, the names of Advocate Supreme Court Shah Muhammad Jatoi, former advocate general Muhammad Rauf Atta and Rahila Durrani were also proposed.

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